Wind101 - Your Source for Solid Facts on Wind Energy
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Thomas Jefferson
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What’s it Like Living with Turbines?
Kevin Beeson is Supervisor of Pine River Township, Michigan, home to one of MIchigan’s newest and largest wind farms.
Wall Street Journal: Global Investment in Wind and Solar Outshining Fossil Fuels
Breakthrough will Allow Recycling of all Wind Turbine Components
Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and Google flocking to Iowa for Wind Energy
What Dow Chemical’s huge Wind Energy Deal Says about our Energy Landscape
Do Wind Turbines Affect Property Values?
I asked local officials in Wind Turbine areas - Huron and Gratiot Counties, Michigan - whether home values had been affected over the last decade.
Wind Turbines Support Local Services for Health, Safety, and Welfare - while Keeping Taxes Low!
Businesses Seek Renewable Energy to Keep Costs Down!
Expert: Renewable Subsidies “Laughable” compared to Fossil fuels
Renewable Energy’s Big Advantage - No Fuel Costs Mean 20 year Price Electricity Guarantees
In one Michigan county, Wind revenues were used to shore up an underfunded county retirement account - insuring good health benefits for county pensioners.
Huron Daily Tribune - Report Breaks Down Where Wind Turbine Revenue Goes
Sarah Mills PhD - Closeup Study of Wind Energy in Michigan
Elkton-Pigeon-Bayport Schools expand Enrollment for 4th year
Schools among the turbines attract parents from across the thumb.
See pic
Laker High School - New Bond and Sinking Fund for Sports Facility
Huron County Equalized Value Up almost 16 percent last year - due to Wind Development
Toledo Blade: Wind Farm Revenue Improving Kids School Performance
How Wind Turbines Help Michigan Corn Growers
Iowa TV Report: Wind Opponents Kill Rabbits to Lure Eagles into Wind Turbines
When wind farms are built, developers upgrade all the local electric transmission, which makes the whole community more secure, and attractive to businesses.
University of Michigan Researcher - How Wind Energy helps keep families and communities together, and young farmers on the land
University of Michigan researcher - How wind farms increase investment in local communities
How Wind farms help fund Huron County retirees
Wind energy: Helping preserver the Farm way of Life
Wind turbines provide predictable, sustainable income for farmers
Wind development is a “tremendous help” for Family Farms - making wind energy a farm preservation tool
Retired County Commissioner: “Truthfully, I don’t even notice ‘em.”
What do you do when the wind stops blowing and the sun goes down?
Energy Storage is Exploding with Technologies New and Old.
Indiana’s energy storage solution is right under our feet!
Mine Shafts in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan offer huge energy storage capacity
Did Renewables Cause Texas Blackouts? Texas Experts and Texas Local News Reports show NO!
Read More:
NPR - No, Renewables Did Not Cause the Texas Blackouts
Associated Press: Don’t Believe False Claims about Renewable Energy
WJRT Flint - Wind Turbines Keep Spinning Through Tough Winter Weather
Michigan Farmer gives perhaps the most powerful and deeply felt reason to build more wind farms.
Clean Energy Means Less Mining - Rice University Expert
Scientific American: Wind Energy is the Cheapest Electricity and Getting Cheaper
Popular Mechanics: Building a Wind Farm Costs Less than running and Old Coal Plant
County and Township Officials Sound Off on Wind Energy
Local Voices: Wind Energy Does not Harm Birds or Wildlife
So much for the "Wind Turbines Kill Eagles" myth.
2020 study from Michigan DNR, US Fish and Wildlife, and others, of Bald Eagle deaths in Michigan from 1986-2017.
Remember, big buildout of wind turbines in Michigan started in 2010.
Eagle deaths from car collisions - 532
Eagle deaths from Wind turbines - 3
Port Huron Times-Herald:
Bald eagles see increasing numbers across Michigan.
"They're really making a remarkable comeback," - Holly Vaughn, Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Bald eagles are at the top of the food chain, meaning they can pick up pollutants in the prey species that they eat. For example, if a small fish is contaminated and then eaten by a bigger fish, its contamination builds up in that larger fish. If an eagle eats that larger fish, it gets a larger dose of contaminants.
This process, called biomagnification, leads to contaminants being delivered higher up the food chain in higher doses. Removing contaminants from the environment as a whole reduces the amount of contaminants being concentrated,..”
Above, US Fish and Wildlife data show eagle territories as of 1978.
At the time, Bald Eagles were endangered, having been severely impacted by pesticides, toxic chemicals, and heavy metal (mercury) pollution from coal burning.
In particular, note the counties outlined in yellow - Huron in the thumb, and Gratiot in Central Michigan. Both are areas where significant wind development occurred in the 2010 -2012 time frame.
Now see the updated map below.
Above, Michigan Bald Eagle Territories in 2017.
More on the nationwide explosion in Eagle population from the Los Angeles Times, here.
Elkton-Pigeon-Bayport Schools expand Enrollment for 4th year
Schools among the turbines attract parents from across the thumb.
See pic
General Richard Zilmer: Wind energy an Advanced Technology